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Last Veteran of the Aparian War of Independencec passes away
Albert Heinrich Riise, the last surviving veteran of the Aparian War of Independence 488-489AER, passed away this morning at the age of 112. A.H. Riise enlisted in the Royal Corps of Apari in 485AER the day after he turned 18. He served under Dane Marcellus, then Field Marshal of Falleentium, and saw action in the Falleen War against the Two Verzarent 486-488AER, prior to the War of Independence. A.H. Riise was interviewed 6 years ago when he became the last surviving veteran. ”It was a rainy day outside the city of Fraustadt. Late autumn 488AER. The Falleen Armies under the command of Maximillian Vestulte had finally made their move against us, so we marched out to meet them in the countryside. Grand Duke Dane Marcellus had opted for us to be a mobile force rather than digging down in defensive positions. It made sense; we were relatively few to defend such a wide border by digging into the ground… My regiment, the Königsberg Regiment of Foot as it was called back then, was situated on a smaller hill upon which laid a small village. Orders were to hold it at all cost. Around 9am the shelling started and lasted for 30 minutes. The Great Revolt had disrupted a lot of the production in Falleentium, so there was precious little ammunition left around. Not a minute after the shelling died down we started to hear gunfire in the distance and soon we were engulfed in it aswell. The Falleen forces had launched an all-out assault on us and from the small hill I could see men fighting in between trees, country houses, on hills and in the open. The Falleen soldiers assaulting my regiment’s position were so numerous that despite us mowing them down dozens at a time, they still managed to reach the village and vicious fighting erupted. I saw my friend, Karl-Johann, look out the window of the house we were in to take some news shots only to get half of his head blown off. Not a moment later the door was busted open and Falleen sodiers stormed in. I was so scared, that my mind went blank and my training and instincts took over. Shot the first man, then the second. My rifle jammed and instead I charged with the bayonet, impaling a soldier who looked no more a man than I did when I first enlisted as 18. I looked at him a second too long and got hit by a rifle butt in the shoulder and I fell. I would have died there if one of my squad-mates hadn’t impaled the bugger in the side and cut him open, spilling his entrails. At that point we started to hear the sound of shelling, only this time it was our own. It cut off the Falleen forces from receiving reinforcements and from retreating and it turned into a mass-panic for them. I managed to get on my feet and walk outside and see that the Royal Red Guard was spearheading a counterattack which turned into a massacre of Falleen soldiers who had no chance to prepare a proper resistance. The time was around 3 PM when the Falleen forces were in full retreat and the day was won… However, we met them again a couple days later at the down of Breitenfeld, north of Fraustadt. The Falleen commander Maximilian Vestulte had tried to outmanoeuvre us and capture the biggest hill in the area, which would have forced us to withdraw. The Grand Duke knew of the importance of the hill, however, and led us through a hard march in which we managed to arrive to the location before the Falleen forces. The Falleen forces only tried to take the hill from us once, which resulted in a meaningless slaughter of Falleen soldiers… We just sat there, taking shots as they exhausted tried to advance uphill. Then what is recognised as the last cavalry charge in history happened. The Royal Rider Regiment charged into the sides of the Falleen soldiers after having discharged their carbines. It was a massacre. Maximilian Vestulte called a general retreat at that, but it was too late for the Falleen soldiers caught by the Royal Riders. By the end of it all, the entire hillside was painted red from the blood of Falleens… The Falleen armies retreated back to Falleen territory and didn’t try any other offensives into our lands again.” After the war A.H. Riise retired from the military and started a Rum Company, which today produced specialised and quality Rum. Category:Military of the Grand Duchy of Apari